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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67166	Folly detected or, Some animadversions on a b[ook] called, A brief discourse [con-]cerning singing in the pub[lic] worship of God; put forth by one Mr. Isaac Marlow 1690, and an appendix printed 1691 Wherein the weakness of his arguments against singing God's praises, the dangerousness of his assertions, and his unaccountable confidence is laid open; and singing of Psalms, &c. in God's worship proved a Gospel-ordinance. By Joseph Wright.	Wright, Joseph.; T. W. Appendix: or, A brief answer to Mr. Marlow's notion of the essence of singing.	1691 (1691)	Wing W3704; ESTC R221057	43,280	88

and Errors which whilst you have militated against the Truth you have run into and to remove that Stumbling-block you have laid before the Weak and shall not trouble my self at present to trace you in all your Mistakes that are out in Print because that hath been done by other Hands but shall with all convenient brevity shew your Mistake and Error about that which you call the Essence of Singing Sin and Prayer desiring the Lord to bless it to your Conviction What I shall at present take notice of shall be in Answer to this Question Whether the Essence of Sin Prayer and Praise consists only in the Heart or in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or Mind of Man as Mr. Marlow endeavours to prove Pag. 5 6 7 of his Book of Singing § I shall first of all endeavour to explain the Term Essence to see what it imports in its proper Notion and then apply it to the above Particulars The Essence of a Thing is the Nature and Being thereof Est totum per quod res in proprio esse intrinsicè constituitur saith the Author of Ars sciendi Sive est totum illud per quod res est id quod est 'T is that which gives Being to a Thing it denotes the bare Nature of a Thing abstract from all Modes and Accidents Whatever may be separated from the Nature of a Thing and yet the Thing still remain this doth not appertain to the Essence of it This term Essence as I humbly conceive belongs primarily and properly Entibus realibus to real Beings in opposition to Non-entia entia rationis for all Modes Accidents Entia rationis tho they have Existence yet have no Essence properly so called because Essence as Schuler speaks is formale Entis the very Nature of a positive Being and therefore real positive Beings alone are said to have Essence But in a large Sense and borrowed Acceptation 't is sometimes applyed to Modes and Accidents whether they be Actions Relations or Privations c. and so denotes their Nature and Being such as it is But so much for the term Essence which properly denotes the Quiddity the Nature and Being of a Thing Now whether the Essence of Sin Prayer and Praise does consist in the Heart Mind or Spirit I conceive will be easily made appear by opening the true Nature of these Things because the Essence of a Thing and the Nature of it as before minded is all one § 1. First then as to the Nature of Sin I humbly conceive it lies here 'T is the want of that Rectitude and Conformity to the Law whether it be of Nature Quality or Action that ought to be found in a rational Creature I say rational Creature because 't is the Property or Adjunct of reasonable Creatures Brutes are not under a Law properly so called and consequently are not Subjects capable of Sin I place its Nature in the want of Rectitude with relation to the Law because 't is a privative not positive Being All positive Beings are derived from God and if Sin hath properly an Essence God must be the Creator of it which is Blasphemy to assert And from this very Notion that Sin hath a positive Essence the Manichees fell into the Heresy of two first Principles They taught there were two chief independent Beings namely a good God and a bad One from whom they derived all Good and Evil Into which Heresy Austin is reported to have fallen in his first Days concluding that Sin if it was a positive Being must certainly have an efficient Cause But afterward better understanding its Nature he bewales his Errour and rejects the Notion with great Abhorrence as may be seen in his Confessions Sin therefore I conclude hath no positive Being neither hath it an efficient but rather if I may so call it a deficient Cause 'T is the want of that Rectitude which should be in the Creature with reference to God's Law And so St. John defines it 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sin is the transgression of or the want of due conformity to the Law of God Hence the Learned Turrettine defines it thus saith he Hinc sequitur rationem formalem peccati in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privatione consistere quae notat carentiam rectitudinis seu bonitatis secundùm prescriptum Legis debitae inesse Creaturae rationali sive ea naturae sit seu qualitatum sive actionum c. Lib. 1. P. 651. And others thus 'T is an Inclination Action or Omission opposing the Law of God or wanting that due legal Rectitude it ought to have § 2. But so much for the Nature of Sin in general which is usually divided into Original and that either Inherent or Imputed and Actual and that either of Thought Word or Action Original Sin respects Man's Person and Nature of which he is guilty as soon as born For first of all we are born without that original Righteousness wherewith Adam was created and which the Law of God requires should be in us because we were in Adam as a publick Person whose Duty it was to have kept himself in the Estate wherein God made him so in this respect we have not due conformity to the Law of God even in our very Natures and Qualities Now this very want of original Righteousness is properly Sin because it is the want of what ought to be in us We have not that moral Image of God consisting in Knowledg Righteousness and Holiness which God gave us in our first Parents Our Natures are deprived of original Righteousness and those moral Perfections wherewith Adam was created and are now propense and prone to all Sin and this is that we call Original Sin and of which we read in Scripture especially Psal 51.5 Eph. 2.1 Job 14.4 c. 2ly We are born guilty of Adam's actual Transgression which he first committed which by just imputation becomes ours because then Adam stood not as a private but as a publick Person all were to stand and fall in him he being the Root and Representative of Mankind Adam therefore being made our Head in that first Covenant by Divine Ordination therefore his Transgression is accounted ours we sinned in him as our publick Head and fell with him as the Branches fall with the Body of the Tree according to that of the Apostle in him all sinned and all died Rom. 5.12 But thus much for Original Sin § 3. Now Mr. Marlow in his description of the Essence of Sin as he improperly and confusedly is pleased to call it seems wholly to exclude Original Sin tho I am apt to believe he is no Arminian for when in Pag. 6. he saith The Essence of Sin is in the Spirit 1. Either by this Expression he means the same as he did before Pag. 5. when he spoke of Singing The Essence of Sin is in the Spirit that is it consists in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or

did sing when they had hymned is the same Let your Learned Men say what they please few or none of them were of your Notion against singing in the Church and they which translated sung an Hymn were as learned as they And as some of the old Translations read that Text Grace if you should preach only by that Translation I know what you would be accounted of or others you mention I have seen a Translation which calls Solomon's Song A Ballad of Ballads and Paul the Knave of Jesus Christ and I have seen Grace in Rhime Nor will your Dutch Translation avail you more than the French Protestants will me which saith Chante le Cantique Mat. 26.30 The like is your Instance about lifting up their Voice as if Singular which is not because it is their Voice which is Plural There may be the Voice of a Multitude In Rama was a Voice heard which were Bethlehem and all the Coasts thereof a Voice of all for their Children which Herod slew from two Years old and under Mat. 2.18 Rev. 9.9 The Voice of their Wings were as the sound of Chariots of many Horses running to the Battel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Greek word in all Acts 2.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when this Voice was made Margent it were many spake it and heard it it could not be by one Person but many made this Voice it being but one Matter and Rev. 14.2 saith it clearly And see Numb 21.3 Deut. 1.45 Judg. 20.13 Acts 19.34 Rev. 19.6 where Voice is the Speech of many thus are we imposed upon by an Imagination and I might have expected that because it is in Ephes 5.19 said Heart not Hearts that therefore it must be singular too how it scaped is much they could by one Spirit make one Voice and lift up their Voice together You run many dangerous Quibbles it doth not necessitate the like in all publick Prayers nor at any time except the free Operation of the Spirit which may be without confusion wherefore you have said nothing to confute a vocal Singing together but shewed your Weakness c. And I assert a vocal Singing together from Mat. 26.30 and Acts 4.24 a vocal Praying together and I will assert a prescribed Form of singing Psalms in the Scriptures and yet avoid bringing in a prescribed Form of Prayer invented either by you or any in our days except you will prove your selves as infallible as Scripture for the same Arguments will not promote one and the same because they differ not a little in their Infallibility for before the Law and under it Believers had prescribed Forms of Singing but none of Prayer and tho the Lord's Prayer be alledged for a Pattern I fear too few understand it and it would be intolerable Pride for any to forbid its use or to prescribe a Form because Christ did so It is dangerous to make that Negative which the holy Spirit makes Affirmative Paul and Silas did both pray and sing Praise Nature can do this how much more they that are filled with the Spirit which all Saints are required to be The Prisoners did hear them tho you will not many have afore now learned Psalms and can sing them together To deny we ought to sing in a mix'd Congregation is so foolish and frivolous a Notion that I need say nothing to it What have we to do with others or to judg them who are without Must not the Church sing Psalms c. and worship God together because Strangers are assembled with them If they must not sing God's Praises in such a Congregation they must not pray then because others will 't is like and daily do join in their Hearts with the Church in that Ordinance which is a closer Union than that of uniting the Voice nay we must not admit them so much as to say Amen to our Prayers if this were so The Church is met together to worship God and ought they to omit so great and God-glorifying an Ordinance because some Unbelievers may be amongst them If Sinners do that which they have no warrant to do let them answer for it you may as well forbid them to read the Psalms of David c. as not to sing them Reading being also an Ordinance of God as well as Singing and Praying They make the Psalm no more their own in singing it than they do in reading it Pag. 36. You tell us that in this Life the Joys and Consolations of our Redemption-Grace are mixed with Sorrows for Sin Temptations Troubles Afflictions which deprive us of the constant exercise of the Grace of Joy in our Souls so that it is not a time to sing So had all the Saints from the beginning of the World since Sin entred into it not David excepted nor Christ nor his Disciples nor Paul nor Silas which sung under raw Stripes unwashed or plaistered to mitigate their Pain and the Church under the New Testament were under as ill Circumstances as any can be and yet are commanded to sing Psalms and to rejoice and again to rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Indeed notwithstanding your great pretence to both Knowledg and Power you talk like one that is neither truly seasoned with Grace and Experience in the true sense thereof you do so confound things and jumble them having gotten a Notion but want that which you condemn others for What different Seasons soever Joy and Sorrow and Affliction may have they are not at such an unreconciled distance but may meet in one day and less We may mourn with them that mourn and rejoice with them that rejoice undeceived too Your Words rather inforce Saints to continue in their Unbelief which is the cause of their want of Spirit and Joy flattering a compliance through their Weakness perswading them their Case is worse than under the Law who did sing under all their Doubtings Despondencies which were the way to quicken them if Ordinances be to sit in a doubting moping Condition as if to be truly religious were the most disconsolate Condition in the World affrighting to such as are ignorant of it A poor ignorant Saint hath more true Joy in any Condition than all the Hectors in the Earth And as it is no reason that you have rejected singing Praise to the Lord many years except your Humour must be an Example some that are as serious as you and talk as much have rejected such things as you call Truth in your opinion as long but as you begun you make an end and so shall I. By telling you that though your self and others may think you have done the Church or Truth service what Gift soever you have for my part I do seriously think you have done foully amiss thrusting a crude and undigested thing with no advantage to your Talent but many ways to the Scandal and Detriment of the Gospel directly opposing what Christ hath commanded which though I be sure of yet would I not rashly